In his final speech on the Senate floor, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd urged his colleagues to work together in a bipartisan fashion and not change the filibuster rules that have guided their chamber.

“The time of my departure has come,” said Dodd, who is Catholic, quoting Saint Paul. “I’ve fought a good fight…I kept the faith.”

Dodd’s final words on the floor mark the end of a three-decade career in the Senate for the Connecticut Democrat, who announced in January that he would not run for a sixth term. The press gallery was packed as many of the Senator’s colleagues listened to his speech on the floor.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s voice quavered when he said he’d bid “adieu” to Dodd — whose speech he called “one of the most important speeches in the history of the Senate.”

At the age of 66, Dodd had spent more than half of his life in Congress. In his speech, Dodd warmly recalled he sat in the same desk occupied by his father, former Sen. Thomas J. Dodd, for the past 12 years.

Dodd said that while some might feel the need to change the Senate rules on the filibuster, he argued it would not help the partisan gridlock in what is supposed to be a deliberative legislative body.

“Now, in my years here, I’ve learned that the appreciation of the Senate’s role in our national debate is an acquired taste,” Dodd said. “Therefore, to my fellow senators who have never served a day in the minority, I urge you to pause in your enthusiasm to change Senate rules.”

Also in his closing remarks, he touted his legislative accomplishments in office: From the Family and Medical Leave Act passed 17 years ago to the financial regulatory reform legislation signed into law earlier this year. Throughout all that time, Dodd said the only legislation he co-sponsored without a Republican co-sponsor was the health care bill that was signed into law earlier this year.

“Until this last Congress, with rare exceptions, every major piece of legislation that I authored that became law, including the ones I’ve just mentioned, had a Republican co-sponsor, as well as support from my Democratic Caucus,” he said.

Dodd recalled how, when he gave his first speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, after he was first elected to Congress in 1974, only one of his colleagues stuck around to hear his speech — he left before the end of it.

“So I’m grateful a number of you came out to hear today so I’m not speaking to an empty chamber about my remarkable service in this chamber,” he said.

He also warned the next Congress — including a Senate body with half of its members in their first terms — that “the political system at the federal level is completely dysfunctional.”

He also bemoaned the lack of reporters from Connecticut who covered the delegation: There were almost a dozen a decade ago, but now there is a single reporter assigned to cover Connecticut lawmakers on Capitol Hill.